Ten Reasons to Read the Bible Every Day

00:00:00.000 | At the start of the week in episode 1510, we talked about leading someone to Christ,

00:00:09.800 | and Pastor John walked us through four treasure chests of glorious truths that we need to

00:00:14.480 | make clear to someone who wants to close with Christ, as the Puritans called it.

00:00:21.400 | And today we talked to new believers, and it's an email from an anonymous listener,

00:00:25.560 | a new believer himself.

00:00:27.680 | Pastor John, thank you for this podcast.

00:00:29.120 | I'm overwhelmed at how much I don't know about the Bible.

00:00:32.360 | I want to be knowledgeable about scripture so that it can guide me, and I can use it

00:00:36.000 | to guide others in the future.

00:00:38.000 | But there is so much.

00:00:40.560 | I don't know where to begin.

00:00:43.060 | If I were studying for an exam in class, I would start with a list of essential topics

00:00:46.800 | to be tested on.

00:00:48.460 | But with the Bible, I feel like the test is life, and I don't know what I need to know

00:00:53.360 | to be prepared, if that makes any sense.

00:00:56.340 | In other words, where do I start?

00:00:58.040 | What is the first and most essential thing I need to know to follow Christ by reading

00:01:02.440 | His Word?

00:01:03.680 | Well, my answer is probably going to be a little bit frustrating, because he's asking

00:01:11.640 | for a particular truth in the Bible, and I'm going to say, "Bible, Bible, Bible, Bible."

00:01:19.080 | I have never met a mature, fruitful, strong, spiritually discerning Christian who is not

00:01:28.160 | full of scripture and devoted to regular meditation on scripture and given to storing it in the

00:01:36.660 | heart through Bible memorization, and that's not a coincidence.

00:01:41.320 | So what I want to do is persuade our new believing friend that it is absolutely essential, after

00:01:51.600 | coming to faith in Christ, to be radically, deeply, experientially, devoted, unshakably,

00:02:00.920 | unwaveringly persuaded that reading and meditating on and understanding and memorizing and enjoying

00:02:10.080 | scriptures is absolutely essential for the Christian life, which would include being

00:02:17.940 | in the Word—capital W—every day with the aim that we will meet God there, and little

00:02:26.120 | by little, the glory of his truth will fill and transform our lives.

00:02:32.280 | And that may seem obvious to them or to others, but it isn't obvious because I know fairly

00:02:41.080 | well-along Christians who don't do this.

00:02:44.760 | They don't do this, and they've been Christians for years, and they're lackadaisical.

00:02:51.900 | They think it's optional because they know so much already, and they read so many other

00:02:56.720 | books.

00:02:57.720 | I don't regard that as a very good habit at all.

00:03:00.720 | I think it's dangerous.

00:03:01.720 | So, I have ten reasons that I believe this—ten reasons to make the Bible reading, Bible

00:03:09.040 | understanding, Bible memory essential to Christian life.

00:03:15.000 | Resist feelings of self-sufficiency that say, "I don't need the Scripture every day."

00:03:21.920 | So, here are my ten reasons.

00:03:24.160 | Scripture saves.

00:03:25.160 | "Take heed to yourself and to your doctrine.

00:03:27.640 | Hold fast, for by doing that you will save both yourself and your hearers."

00:03:33.880 | 1 Timothy 4:16.

00:03:37.560 | Salvation has happened to God's people.

00:03:40.760 | Salvation is at this moment happening to God's people, and salvation will happen completely

00:03:46.640 | at the resurrection of God's people, and it is happening now by means.

00:03:53.360 | Paul says, "Hold fast to the teaching and save yourself."

00:03:57.600 | God saves us daily by Scripture.

00:04:02.680 | Number two, Scripture frees from Satan.

00:04:06.240 | "You shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free."

00:04:10.080 | John 8:32.

00:04:11.080 | And the context is that Jesus is showing the Jewish leaders that though they think they

00:04:17.000 | are not slaves, you are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's

00:04:23.080 | desires.

00:04:24.080 | Satan is your enemy, young Christian.

00:04:26.480 | He is a thousand times stronger than you are.

00:04:29.840 | So John writes to the young believers, "I write to you, young men, because you are strong,

00:04:35.000 | and the Word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one."

00:04:40.160 | This is our only hope for defeating a supernatural enemy.

00:04:45.820 | Every time Jesus was tempted by the devil, he struck back with the sword of the Spirit,

00:04:51.240 | which is the Word of God, and he had it memorized, so he didn't have to carry a book in the

00:04:56.680 | wilderness.

00:04:58.920 | Reason number three, Scripture imparts grace and peace.

00:05:04.600 | May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

00:05:13.880 | Knowledge of God gained through Scripture is not identical with grace, but Peter says

00:05:20.280 | it is a means of grace.

00:05:23.720 | If we want to be made peaceful and powerful through divine grace, Peter says, it happens

00:05:31.960 | in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

00:05:37.600 | That knowledge is found in one place—Scripture.

00:05:42.720 | Number four, Scripture sanctifies.

00:05:46.080 | Jesus prayed, "Father, sanctify them in the truth.

00:05:49.600 | Your Word is truth."

00:05:52.280 | Sanctification is the process of becoming holy, that is, becoming more like Christ and

00:05:58.040 | like God, who is perfectly holy.

00:06:00.620 | This is not optional.

00:06:01.620 | Hebrews 12:14 says, "Pursue the holiness without which we will not see the Lord."

00:06:08.600 | We don't become perfect in this life, but we do become holy.

00:06:12.560 | God sanctifies His people, and Jesus prays to His Father, "Sanctify them in the truth.

00:06:20.440 | Your Word is truth."

00:06:22.440 | It couldn't be more plain or more important.

00:06:27.020 | Number five, Scripture gives joy.

00:06:29.840 | "You receive the Word," Paul says, "in much affliction to the Thessalonians, with

00:06:36.640 | the joy of the Holy Spirit," 1 Thessalonians 1:6.

00:06:42.680 | Or Psalm 1, verse 2, "His delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates

00:06:50.520 | day and night."

00:06:51.520 | Life without joy is unbearable.

00:06:56.280 | The Christian life is a life of many afflictions, but in them all God sustains joy, and he does

00:07:05.760 | it by the Scriptures.

00:07:08.920 | Reason number six, Scripture protects us from destructive error.

00:07:13.320 | "Until we attain the unity of faith," Paul says, "and the knowledge of the Son

00:07:18.040 | of God, so that we may no longer be carried to and fro by every wind of doctrine," how

00:07:23.320 | do young Christians stop being leaves blown around by cultural and theological winds and

00:07:31.760 | opinions?

00:07:32.760 | "The unity of faith and the knowledge of the Son of God," knowledge that they experience

00:07:42.200 | not as the opinion of man, but as the Word of God.

00:07:46.080 | That's found in one place, the Scriptures.

00:07:50.120 | Scripture is the hope of heaven.

00:07:52.020 | That's number seven.

00:07:53.580 | Scripture is the hope of heaven.

00:07:55.960 | And what I mean by this is that full understanding, full enjoyment of the truth of Scripture will

00:08:01.240 | be experienced only in heaven.

00:08:04.000 | First Corinthians 13, 12, "Now I know in part, then I shall understand fully, even

00:08:10.320 | as I have been fully understood."

00:08:12.840 | The knowledge of God, all the fullness that a created being can properly comprehend and

00:08:19.840 | enjoy, the knowledge of God, will not be withheld from us indefinitely.

00:08:26.760 | The frustrations of our present limitations of understanding and enjoyment will be removed.

00:08:33.720 | How fitting it is then that we be ever growing now in what will be our final joy in the age

00:08:43.360 | to come.

00:08:45.200 | Reason number eight.

00:08:47.280 | Scripture will be resisted by some.

00:08:49.840 | "The time is coming," Paul says, "when people will not endure sound teaching, but

00:08:54.840 | having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own

00:08:58.520 | likings," 2 Timothy 4.3.

00:09:00.960 | In other words, we need to know the Scriptures so that we're not taken off guard or knocked

00:09:06.760 | off balance or led away by false teachers.

00:09:11.680 | We need to receive the Scriptures regularly, to be ready to meet those who refuse to receive

00:09:19.600 | the Scriptures.

00:09:21.360 | Reason number nine.

00:09:22.520 | The right handling of Scripture is approved by God.

00:09:28.080 | Paul says in 2 Timothy 2.15, "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved,

00:09:35.680 | a workman who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth."

00:09:41.440 | It is a precious thing to be assigned to do a very important task and then to find the

00:09:49.600 | master worker approving of what he's asked you to do.

00:09:54.920 | We're all assigned in some measure to handle the word of God, and what a wonderful opportunity

00:10:01.040 | to be pleasing to the Lord.

00:10:03.720 | Finally, number ten.

00:10:05.920 | Scripture gives and sustains life.

00:10:10.480 | Jesus said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the

00:10:17.600 | mouth of God."

00:10:18.600 | (Matthew 4.4)

00:10:20.560 | Spiritual life, eternal life, just like physical life, must be fed, not by bread, but by the

00:10:29.800 | word of God.

00:10:31.080 | If you think that you have eternal life as a kind of vaccination against hell, which

00:10:38.640 | needs no nourishment, you don't know what spiritual life is.

00:10:44.880 | So there are ten reasons for why young believers should resolve, with all their might, all

00:10:54.800 | the might that God gives them, to make reading and meditating on and understanding and memorizing

00:11:02.080 | the scriptures essential, non-negotiable, in their Christian life.

00:11:08.400 | That is really helpful.

00:11:09.560 | Thank you, Pastor John, for expressing all this and for modeling for all of us this priority

00:11:14.520 | in your own life for so many decades.

00:11:18.480 | Really appreciate it.

00:11:19.480 | And thank you for joining us today on the podcast.

00:11:21.560 | For our feed, our archive, or to send us your own question, go to our online home at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.

00:11:30.040 | Well today in the church, we hear quite often phrases like, "Don't trust your desires,"

00:11:35.880 | or "Don't follow your heart."

00:11:38.680 | And yet, Christian hedonism calls people to follow their hearts toward the greatest and

00:11:43.120 | most lasting joy in the universe.

00:11:46.200 | So do we follow our hearts, or do we not follow our hearts?

00:11:50.040 | It's a very discerning question from a listener.

00:11:52.040 | It's up on Monday.

00:11:53.400 | I'm Tony Reiki.

00:11:54.400 | We'll see you then.

00:11:55.400 | Have a great weekend.

00:11:55.720 | Have a great weekend.

00:11:56.720 | [end]

00:11:58.720 | 1.5.1 Desiring God.org/AskPastorJohn

00:12:00.720 | 2.5.1 Desiring God.org/AskPastorJohn

00:12:02.720 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

Ten Reasons to Read the Bible Every Day

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